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Autumn Bounty Cider Sangria

Fresh apples, pears, cranberries and spices fill this Autumn Bounty Cider Sangria with the best of Fall flavours.

I’ve learned that sangria, such as this Autumn Bounty Cider Sangria, is my spirit drink. Whatever that means.

Like with chocolate, I’ve never met a type of sangria I haven’t enjoyed. Red wine and citrus? Sure. White wine and pear? Let’s do it. In fact, you don’t even have to have the most expensive produce or mix-ins to make sangria tasty.

Here’s an example. One of my best friends was hosting a mini potluck and movie night at her apartment while we were in university. She was showing Mamma Mia, and while we had our chips and brownies bases covered like all good university students arriving at a party do, we were sorely lacking in the girly drink department.

Being on a student budget (like that’s changed), I wanted to bring sangria, the epitome of ladies night drinks, but could definitely not afford to buy expensive wine and fancy sparkling beverages to mix in. Instead, I googled ‘cheap sangria’ and found a recipe that was basically this:

The cheapest red wine on the shelf, who cares where it’s from

A big bottle of Sprite

A small bag of frozen berries

Ta da! Sangria! For cheap university students. It had the subtlety of a freight train, but tasted delicious. My sommelier food pairing recommendation? Crushed barbecue chips from the bus ride over and pita from that sketchy convenience store across the street where you once saw a pigeon inside.

Luckily, this Autumn Bounty Cider Sangria is slightly more refined. But like it’s predecessor, it’s a fridge-cleaner sangria that makes use of all the best Fall tastes: apple, pear, cinnamon and cranberry. In fact, even the wine that I used (left over from a dinner party I held a week prior) had “hints of vanilla, pear and apple“swirling around. Score!

All you need to do is chop, mix and let mellow in the fridge for a few hours before serving. My small batch version made three large glasses of Autumn Bounty Cider Sangria, but this can easily be doubled or tripled for larger crowds.

Check out CK on Instagram! If you try out one of my recipes, tag @CrumbKitchen so I can see your delicious creations. 🙂

Budget Breakdown

Why it’s Cheap

This is the ultimate ‘fridge cleaner’ drink. Literally. I made this recipe by opening my fridge, seeing a handful of leftover produce, a bit of cider in a jug from my visit to an apple orchard, and half a bottle of white wine from a dinner party the week before. You’ll most likely have everything on hand, and if not, all of these ingredients are easily found this time of year.

Make it More Budget-Friendly

I’d imagine this would also taste good with leftover rosé if you have that on hand, though I’d recommend finding one that isn’t too sweet. Good quality apple juice could also work for the cider portion.

I LOVE me some sangria (I have 3 recipes on the blog and am working on a 4th) and I NEVER would have thought to add apple cider to a sangria — but it makes so much sense! Love the flavours and ease of these recipe, Cassie. Also, love your description of college sangria days (busted chips and sketchy pigeons made me LOL). Hahaha! Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Love this! I’m also a “clean out the fridge” kinda cook (and bartender), and this looks awesome! I’m impressed that you managed to pull a sangria together in your college days. We had a bar that served $2 shots. It was so sticky and gross that you couldn’t wear open-toed shoes. Your food pairings made me laugh 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving!

I’ve never left it that long, but I can’t imagine it would be undrinkable. The fruit might be more mushy and the bubbles would have definitely disappeared, but you can give it a shot. I’d recommend doing it the day of, though.